Category: New

I am very sorry to have to tell you that Peter Blakey died on Wednesday afternoon after a short bout of pneumonia.

Peter joined Hollin Lane Allotments in 1981 and became an important member or our community from early on. He served as Secretary and managed plot lettings for many years before passing that job on to Rosie. He finally retired from the Committee in 2014. Throughout this time, and until his death at 89 years old he quietly looked after cutting the grass on our footpaths, even when he was in considerable pain from his knees.

Peter was an excellent gardener. He won our Best Allotment competition many times, and was a formidable exhibitor of vegetables, often winning prizes at our little show, and at others around the city. I happened to raise the subject the other day and he told me that his exhibits had won 31 first prizes last year. He also contributed to the Leeds Allotments Federation’s winning exhibits at some of the Harrogate and Great Yorkshire shows. He was keen for us to improve our own exhibits and showmanship, and composed a handy guide to showing some of the main classes.

In recent weeks Peter did a huge amount of work turning over his whole plot and ridging it in readiness for the new planting season. His latest project was a massive hot bed – a pit filled with hot strawy manure with a cold frame over it to provide summery heat for growing in cold weather. Not being able to see the conclusion of this experiment will be just one of many reasons I mourn his passing.

Peter was always looking for new ways to improve things – not just his own gardening, but the state of Hollin Lane Allotments as a whole. He loved being here, and did much to make it the happy place it is. We will miss him hugely.

I am sure you will all join me in extending our sympathy to Peter’s wife Kathryn and their family.

LEARNING DAY CANCELLED

The learning day for 11 March is cancelled due to adverse weather. We will reschedule for a later date.

Winter pruning of apples and pears is best done while the trees are dormant, usually between November and early March in the UK. Here are three useful articles from the RHS that explain what to do for different types of pruning:

• For young standard or bush-trained trees
• Regulated pruning to keep trees from getting too big
• For renovating old or neglected trees

Restricted forms like cordons and espaliers are managed by summer pruning.

Here is an article by George Monbiot on soil, and how we might nurture it to keep producing food in years to come.

The Pesticide Action Network has produced a useful guide to gardening without pesticides. The link for the download is about 2/3 of the way down the page.

A researcher in America has found a highly effective, non-toxic and cheap slug bait. Is this what we have been looking for all these years? Why not try it and see? (But what is the best way of getting rid of the slugs once you catch them?)

Well, the first time I tried it the rats ate the bread dough before the slugs found it. I’ll try again with wire mesh to stop the rats.

Citizen science research in Brighton and Hove shows that allotments can be as productive as conventional farms. This is a separate project from Measure Your Harvest, which comes from the University of Sheffield, and has published similar findings.

What if the land owners decide to sell off your self-managed allotment site? One action your allotment association could take now would be to “nominate” the land to become an “Asset of Community Value”. This means that the sale of the land would be delayed by six months to give community groups time to enter a bid to buy the land. Nominating the land costs nothing, and the form is available from the Council’s web page. There is more helpful information about the process on that web page, too.

Sad loss of a Leeds Allotments Stalwart

Melvin Nowland, an allotment plot-holder and Trustee at Headingley Station West Allotments in Leeds, has sadly died following a long illness.

He was committed to the preservation of the allotment movement in Leeds and could be, quite rightly, outspoken to influences he thought detrimental to the allotment movement in Leeds. He was an active member of the Leeds Allotments Federation for more years than I can remember. Even when wheelchair bound, he attended meetings regularly, and events when he could, he showed a very commendable commitment and remained a stalwart to our allotment movement in Leeds.

His contribution to the preservation and running of allotments in Leeds will be sadly missed.

From Phil Gomersall